Like David Crosby, Jimmie Vaughan, and Robbie Robertson.

The Electric Guitar...

The Electric Guitar...

The thing can take you to heaven or beckon you toward the devil. Each one, if put in the right hands, imbued with the potential to make a legend. Van Halen, Crosby, Vaughan, Johnson, Santana, Nielsen, Allman — legends like those, whose axes grace the pages of Guitar Aficionado's new book, The Collections, which is out tomorrow.

Just by looking at the things, you can just feel the power coming off them. And for some, you can see how the years have battered them. Here, we've collected some of our favorites from the book, along with their back stories, in an exclusive preview...